Hacktivists Bypass Israeli YouTube Ban

February 22, 2013

After the Israeli government banned all electronic devices on flights, they began to systematically go through YouTube and ban videos that they deem unsafe.

The hacktivist community quickly began to organize and began DDoS, distributed denial of service attacks, against the Israeli government’s entities. The hackers also began to distribute software that is able to bypass the ban on YouTube, allowing people to watch the ‘unsafe’ videos banned by the government.

The ban on electronics initiated from an attack three weeks ago by Tayyib Rashid, a Saudi citizen, who detonated a bomb on El Al flight 1235. The bomb consisted of an over charged laptop battery punctured by a nail hidden in Rashid’s shoe. The attack caused several people to be hospitalized for chemical burns on their arms and legs. When authorities interrogated Rashid, he said the idea came from YouTube videos.